Writing

Abstract

This chapter discusses the challenges of writing a qualitative research paper. Our narrative addresses inclusive organizations and organizing, using the literary genre of the short story and tools of fictional writing (e.g., description, action, dialogue, internal thought, interior monologue, flashbacks, memory recall). Using these tools, we address a way of reporting research conducted on vocational education for deaf students that is inclusive of their ways of constructing the world. We draw on work experiences with disability contexts, fieldwork notes on management learning approaches to deaf students as well as transcripts of interviews with workers organizing disabled people’s education, some of whom had a hearing disability, while others did not. Narrative fiction allows writers, subjects and readers to relate to complex, paradoxical, sensitive, emotional and ambiguous realities and singular experiences. People’s judgments and experiences of living with disability are illuminated by a narrative that links issues ordinarily considered as private problems to an understanding of them as public issues. We merged scenic (aesthetic) and narrative (categorical) methods to problematize ableism and definitions of disability in the workplace, relating to social context and impairment while connecting with broader issues related to the management of learning with students with a disability, in this case, deafness. Statements of purpose: To discuss the challenges of writing a qualitative research paper that theorizes aesthetically about inclusive disability organizations and organizing, in which the findings must be presented in ways that work for the writer (authors), readers (students, academics, researchers, professionals, editors, reviewers) and subjects (research interlocutors). Methodology: The literary genre of the short story, using the tools of fictional writing (e.g. description, action, dialogue, internal thought, interior monologue, flashbacks, memory recall), is used to theorize aesthetically about vocational education with deaf students from our disability research experience, our work experiences with disability, examination of fieldwork notes of management learning of deaf students and interview transcripts of workers with and without disabilities that are organizing disabled people’s education. Findings: Narrative fiction allows scholars, as writers, subjects and readers, to live and enact complex, paradoxical, sensitive, emotional and ambiguous realities and singularities, engaging people in considering the lives of disabled people’s experiences and judgements. Originality and value: This chapter addresses the challenges of writing a qualitative research paper theorizing aesthetically about management learning with students with a disability, in this case deafness, merging scenic (aesthetic) and narrative (categorical) methods to problematize ableism and definitions of disability in the workplace as the result of social context and impairment.